Tag: You’re Doing it Right

A Different Way of Doing Business

As an agorist I’m always interesting in learning how other cultures do business. I came across a very interesting article that discusses how Somali immigrants in Minneapolis have overcome many of the issues that traditional American entrepreneurs suffer. It’s pretty insightful and I think agorists and those looking to start “legitimate” businesses could learn a thing or two:

One marked difference between Somali immigrants and other Minnesota business owners is their devout adherence to the beliefs and practices of Islam. A recent survey, conducted out of the University of Minnesota, titled Achieving Success in Business: A Comparison of Somali and American-Born Entrepreneurs in Minneapolis, found that 98.9% of Somalis described their religious beliefs as ‘extremely important’ whereas only 48.9% of non-migrants surveyed expressed this level of commitment to their faith and 15.6% reported their religious beliefs to be ‘not important at all’.

Many Muslims, Somalis included, believe that Islam strongly discourages or even strictly prohibits the use of credit or accepting loans that include the payment of interest. Obviously, this belief has a significant impact on how Somalis must go about funding their businesses.

Luckily for Somalis, Minnesota has the highest number of immigrants as a result of second-migration than any other state and is home to several organizations and nonprofits that work to provide loans and ways of financing that are sensitive to those of varying cultural backgrounds. Thus, Somalis have the opportunity to start businesses without having to worry about large loan and interest payments haunting them years into the future.

One of the biggest hurdles prospective business owners face is acquiring the capital needed to get a business idea off of the ground. Traditional banks generally charge a great deal of interest but such practices are not allowed under the teachings of Islam so many of the Somali immigrants in this country have found an alternative, which is very reminiscent of mutual banking systems often advocated by mutualists. A mutual bank works differently from traditional banks in the United States. The idea is to lend money to prospective business owners and charge just enough interest to cover overhead. In effect it grants potential business owners a method of acquiring capital without suffering years of crushing debt.

Somalis aren’t the only ones who can benefit from mutual banking, prospective agorists could stand to benefit greatly from agorist mutual banks. Most agorists that I’ve talked to have plans to start small businesses but even small businesses require investment capital. Investment capital, especially for those looking to establish businesses seen as illegitimate by much of society, is difficult to come by this day and age of high unemployment Agorists also, unlike “legitimate” prospective entrepreneurs, don’t have the option of seeking a small business loan from traditional banks. This is where agorists could practice a form of mutual aid by pooling their available resources for the purpose of assisting fellow agorists wanting to start new businesses. Consider how well such a system has worked for Somali immigrants who often come to this country with no money or credit.

Living your entire life in one country and under one culture has negative side-effects, the biggest of which may be a lack of creativity. People who grow up living a certain way often get trapped into thinking that that way is the only way that works. When you look at other cultures you learn that isn’t the fact though. Every culture has managed to get by using various different methods. Because of this it’s valuable to look at how other cultures do things and consider adopting ideas that work well.

Checkmate

So somebody went and designed a magazine that can be created using a 3D printer. Not only did they design such a magazine but they tested it and it worked very well. This demonstrates the futility of a magazine ban. Combining a box with a spring isn’t exactly rocket science, in fact boxes and springs have been used by humanity for centuries.

I still think the best defense against any firearm-related prohibition is to take a page from alcohol prohibition and the prohibition of some drugs. During the era of alcohol prohibition people were still able to get alcohol. From bootleggers to people making bathtub gin there was no way to enforce the prohibition. Even if you wanted to spend a night on the town you had options in the form of speakeasies, which were secret locations where individuals wanting to socialized over drinks could go. The current prohibition on some drugs has proven to be similarly futile. Those wanting to buy verboten drugs can generally do so easily. We must do the same with firearms. By making firearms and related accessories so prevalent we can render any prohibition irrelevant. The prevalent availability of cannabis has not only rendered the prohibition almost entirely meaningless but it has also allowed advocates of cannabis legalization to point to example after example of people using the plant to no ill effect. Advocates of gun rights have done a similar job with firearms. By making firearms so prevalent in society we’ve prevented many individuals from believing prominent gun ownership is dangerous to society. In the case of a prohibition we would have to step up production to ensure firearms become even more widely available.

What is an “Assault Weapon”

I don’t know who created this concise guide to “assault weapons” but they made a great contribution to the fight for gun rights. The site is a slideshow that describes the origin on the term “assault weapon” and discusses that the term is nothing more than a legal fiction defined not by lethality or capability but by cosmetic features. It’s a pretty good link to send those who aren’t sure what an “assault weapon” is.

An Interesting Idea

Thanks goes to commenter Matt for letting me know about a new bill introduced in Wyoming [PDF]:

AN ACT relating to firearms; providing that any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming; providing a penalty; and providing for an effective date.

I would like to see this bill pass just to know that there is one state in the Union that still has a spine. Since the Civil War the individuals states have been reluctant to stand up to the federal state. They have good cause since the last time they stood up they were invaded and hundreds of thousands of people ended up dead. Still, it would be nice to see a few monkey wrenches tossed into the federal state’s machinery.

Using the State’s Fiction Against It

Sometimes you can use the state’s own creations against it. Let’s say you want to drive in the carpool lane but don’t have a second person in your vehicle, how could you go about do so? Since corporations are legally people under United States law you could bring corporate papers with you:

When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger.

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.
Frieman doesn’t actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court — to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine — a minimum of $481.

I think it could be a very interesting court case. On one hand the state has an incentive to rule against Frieman’s claim that a corporation is a person. Creating a corporation isn’t difficult and any ruling stating that a corporation is a person in regards to carpooling would give individuals an incentive to create dummy corporations for the specific purpose of driving in a carpool lane without a second person in the vehicle. On the other hand the state relies on corporation personhood for a great number of benefits including campaign contributions.

It’s always fun to see the state getting caught up in its own mess.

Illinois Gun Ban Stopped for Now

Apparently the gun control advocates of Illinois were unable to get the votes necessary to ram through the gun control amendments . They’ve been pushed back for now:

There’s not enough support in the Illinois Senate to impose tough new restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.

In a setback for gun-control advocates in the wake of the killings of school children in Connecticut, the Illinois Senate was poised to adjourn Thursday without voting on two pieces of legislation aimed at limiting access to certain kinds of weapons and bullets.

Hopefully things remain this way but we all know the politician’s mantra is “If at first you don’t succeed try again harder.” Although I doubt the proposed ban would hold up in court if passed it would still required resources to be invested in, what would likely be, a long drawn-out court battle.

Building an AR Lower from Bolted Together Flat Pieces of Metal

While manufacturing an AR lower on a computer numeric control (CnC) machine is possible most people still lack a CnC machine. Fortunately Zerg539 alerted me to a forum post detailing how an AR lower can be manufactured from bolted together flat pieces of metal, which can be done with tools that are more commonly available than CnC machines. Detailed blueprints can be found here [PDF].

Blueprints like this make implementing Plan B even easier. Decentralized manufacturers could pull together the tools necessary to cut and drill flat pieces of metal easier than they could pull together resources to acquire a CnC machine. Furthermore the tooling for an AR lower build from flat pieces of metal could be spread out between multiple locations which would make shutting down a manufacturing ring even more difficult. I believe manufacturing an AR from flat pieces of metal would also be much cheaper and therefore AR pattern rifles could be made even more readily available to those with few funds.

Becoming Emperor

I’ve been reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. So far it’s been an amazing read but I have trouble recommending it simply because it requires a working knowledge of anarchism, Discordianism, and other forms of anti-state movements. The book also fails to maintain any type of continuous timeline. In one paragraph it will be covering characters and events from one scene only to jump to an entirely different set of characters, who may be in a different time period, without warning. Since I have a habit of reading 10 books at the same time this doesn’t bother me but I know it would present problems for many readers. Still, if you can get around those notable issues it’s an absolutely hilarious title.

One part of the book discusses a man named Emperor Norton. Emperor Norton was a self-declared Emperor of the United States that resided in San Francisco. What’s interesting about the man is that the people of San Francisco humored him. He even issued his own currency, which became accepted in the city. An except from the book makes an excellent point regarding Emperor Norton’s insanity and effectiveness:

Well, chew on this for a while, friend: there were to very sane and rational anarchists who lived about the same time as Emperor Norton across the country in Massachusetts: William Green and Lysander Spooner. They also realized the value of having competing currencies instead of one uniform State currency, and they tried logical arguments, empirical demonstrations and legal suits to get this idea accepted. They accomplished nothing. The government broke its own laws to find ways to suppress Green’s Mutual Bank and Spooner’s People’s Bank. That’s because they were obviously sane, and their currency did pose a real threat to the monopoly of the Illuminati. But Emperor Norton was so crazy that people humored him and his currency was allowed to circulate.

Emperor Norton effected actual change in his area simply by being crazy. Even though he issued his own currency the state never moved against him as they did with other individuals who attempted to introduce competing currencies. He was never tried for treason, labeled a terrorist, or otherwise targeted for state agression with the exception of one incident where he was kidnaped by the police who planned to have him involuntarily committed. Needless to say the townsfolk didn’t agree with the police’s actions:

In 1867, a policeman named Armand Barbier arrested Norton to commit him to involuntary treatment for a mental disorder. The Emperor’s arrest outraged the citizens and sparked scathing editorials in the newspapers. Police Chief Patrick Crowley ordered Norton released and issued a formal apology on behalf of the police force. Crowley wrote “that he had shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line.” Norton magnanimously granted an “Imperial Pardon” to the errant policeman. All police officers of San Francisco thereafter saluted Norton as he passed in the street.

How many individuals do you know can be arrested and wind up having the police salute him? Sometimes sanity is a liability. When you’re serious about something people often refuse to take you seriously but if they believe you’re insane they will often humor you. While they may be humoring you they are still participating in what you advocate and that participation can give you an opportunity to point to and say, “See! You’ve been doing exactly what I’ve been preaching and things have turned out just fine!” Joshua Norton effectively became emperor by merely declaring it. Since people thought he was insane they humored him and began acting like he was an emperor. For all practical purposes Joshua Norton was an emperor, at least a legitimate of an emperor as any other that has existed.

Panic Buying in the Twin Cities

Last night I went to a couple of gun stores and was able to view the panic buying first hand. The first gun store I stopped at was the newly reopened GunStop in Minnetonka. There were a couple of customers in there but it wasn’t as crazy as I had expected. GunStop still had some Colt ARs in stock, likely because they are extremely expensive ARs (which is why I don’t have a Colt). There were no AK pattern rifles. Overall it didn’t seem that out of hand there.

The second gun store I stopped at was Cabela’s in Rogers. That place was a zoo. There were likely 10 to 20 people waiting in line for their National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) check and at least another 10 to 20 looking at the guns. All of the modern semi-automatic rifles were sold out as were the standard capacity magazines. Cabela’s was raking in the money.

I was going to stop at Gander Mountain in Maple Grove but they apparently closed sometime between last night and the three or so years it’s been since I worked in the area. Too bad for them, if they were still open they would be making bank right now. In fact they could probably get away with inflating their already overinflated prices.

Seeing all of those people buying guns made me smile. My girlfriend is likely annoyed because she has been planning to pick up an AR for some time now but I take solace in knowing all of those guns are out there. Even if an “assault weapon” ban goes through the market will be flooded with rifles and magazines. Prices will go up, that’s beyond a doubt, but things will be available so long as the state doesn’t try to ban currently owned rifles and magazines (in which case I will simply say come and take them). Seeing record sales has to piss the gun control advocates off.

Why Marxists Should Oppose Gun Control

I don’t view gun rights as a Republican versus Democrat issue. Instead I view gun rights as an issue that transcends political parties all together. Expanding the ranks of gun rights activists is the only way we’ll be able to stop advocates of gun control from achieving their desires. Although I’m an individualist anarchist, which is a philosophy that doesn’t mix well with Marxism, I will gladly work with Marxists in the fight for gun rights. In fact Marxists have just as much skin in the gun rights game as anybody else:

Second, I am not a ‘gun-nut’, a member of the NRA, or even remotely conservative. I do not believe that guns have mystical qualities or that they grant the owner access to abstract conceptions of honor, courage, or bravery. Guns are only tools of death. A tool I would not want to be monopolized by the capitalist state.

The above statement easily summarizes my entire position. A position founded upon a recognition of class war and the extent of that struggle. To base the protection of gun ownership on a principle of ownership is to set your foundation in erosion. These lofty abstractions are meaningless; especially when they do nothing to challenge the material existence of the status quo. Talking aimlessly about natural rights of gun ownership only reaffirms the poverty of ethics. At most such abstractions are petty bourgeois talking-points with no sense of direction, and thus can be of no service to a revolutionary.By allowing the bourgeois state to monopolize the ownership of these tools, we only hurt the working class. The liberation of the working class must be our utmost priority, for without it, a truly ethical system is unreachable and humanity will forever be subjugated. It is for this reason, not for a love of guns, that Marx writes:

“… the workers must be armed and organized. The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition… Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary. ” – Karl Marx, Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League

Most gun owners would find Marxists to be strange bedfellows indeed. It may seem odd that may political ideologies supporting gun rights would have any common ground with Marxists. Generally supporters of gun rights are libertarians, classical liberals, constitutionalists, and followers of other more individualistic philosophies. Truth be told that Marxism, being a revolutionary philosophy, requires that the people be armed. Marxists should be just an embroiled in the fight for gun rights as libertarians are. I know that many gun rights activists hold a great deal of animosity towards Marxists but we should all be willing to put aside our differences when a common goal exists.

I’m quite willing to work together with Marxists, Democrats, Republicans, social anarchists, and anybody else who want to stand against those trying to disarm the people.